Talk:The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

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Talk:The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down/Archive

Section Deleted, Historical Inaccuracies should be on the article

The "Historical Inaccuracies" section of this article pointed out two flaws in the song's narrative from a historical standpoint. Someone erased this, leaving only the note on the page history that it was "irrelevant." If the song was so important in the sense that it reflected a historical event, it would seem VERY RELEVANT to the article to point out factual errors. I'm not sure why this was erased, but it really ought to be put back. --Ironchef8000 (talk) 05:34, 3 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've deleted this section again; since the song does not claim to be a historical record, and the discussion of the song above does not claim that it is particularly based on correct historical detail, this is just nit-picking that adds no value to the reader's understanding of the topic. Moreover, the arguments do not hold; the song lyric says "by May the 10th", not "on May the 10th"; so the lyric is technically accurate as well as true to the spirit of the song (there was no CNN, news took a while to travel). And the song does not appear to claim that Lee "campaigned" in TN; in fact there is no strong agreement what that line is referring to, so there is nothing to argue with. Jgm (talk) 20:08, 4 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Dictator Photo

The photo of the rail line at Petersburg is very inaccurately captioned. That is a Federal mortar, on a Federal track. Not Confederate. In fact it has very little connection to the song at all, other than also being from the Civil War.--Caswain01 (talk) 20:59, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"...there goes Robert E. Lee..." or "..there goes the Robert E. Lee.."

I just listened five times to this passage from the original Band recording of the song and it seems clear to me that he is saying "...there goes the Robert E. Lee..."

Additionally, I learned this song from the official Band songbook for the album and, though I do not have that in front of me, I certainly learned it as "...the Robert E. Lee..." —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dogmo1001 (talk • contribs) 23:32, 1 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I noticed the same thing, and it seems the reference is to the "Robert E. Lee" steamboat, which would have been on the Mississippi after 1870. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Lee_%28steamboat%29 Bbcrane54 (talk) 20:49, 5 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Not only are the lyrics "the Robert E. Lee", but also the intent around historical timing of the lyric is not wrong. It states "Back with my wife in Tennessee, when one day she called to me". This clearly means after the war and near the Mississippi river where the protagonist of the lyric most certainly could have seen the steamboat the Robert E. Lee. Please correct. Stating that this lyric is historically impossible is wrong. Chamr1 (talk) 09:27, 7 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This article desperately needs someone to add what the meaning of the actual line and title of the song means:

What is "Old Dixie" and what is meant by driving it down? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.237.86.175 (talk) 10:15, 10 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not an expert but I think Dixie refers to the Southern U.S. in general, or more specifically the Confederate States of America in the U.S. Civil War. "Drove Down" simply is a figure of speach for the North conquering it. Wyldkat

Also not an expert but I've never had any doubt that the "Old Dixie" being driven down was the Stars and Bars flag of the Confederacy. Else, why would it be "the night" that it was driven down. If Robertson had been referring to the Reconstruction-era abuse or neglect of the former Confederate states, I doubt seriously he would have localized the time to one specific night. Dogmo1001 (talk) 16:48, 1 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]